Three stories with two votes each. Pat, Brian and Bill' stories
Next month "in order to"
Pat's
For
two years Penny and Ben had been dating. He was a lot of fun to be
with, full of ideas and enthusiasm.
Drink
a glass of wine outside their local pub, Ben asked suddenly, out of
the blue, could you lend me £ 2,000? He knew that she was a good
saver and had a few thousand in the bank, all learned from her
mother's cautious ways. What could this new venture be? “when we
leave here I will show you what I have in mind”, and refused
further discussion. She knew better than to push him, so they went
on to enjoy their evening.
“Lets
leave the car here and walk” he said. That sounded great to Penny
who loved to walk anywhere. After 15 minutes they were in the center
of the small seaside town where they lived. The main road with
several boarded up shops greeted them. What a dispiriting scene. Ben
only had eyes for one thing, the abandoned toilets going down under
the road. Much to the shoppers and shop keepers alike they had been
closed for years. Loos brought footfall.
“Listen
to me” he said “ I intend to make this a small center of
curiosity, where people will want to come. It will also help toward
the regeneration of this miserable part of town. I have a meeting
with the town council tomorrow, lets hope they will listen to me”.
The
BIG IDEA was to turn the old loos into a boutique style mini coffee
shop. “I know I can convert it...I can see it in my head. With help
and advice from his father and clever friends, I know it can be done.
Water and electricity were were there”.
Penny
stared at him...who would want to go down there to for food and
drink? This is a mad scheme, what would you call it Pennies?” she
said sarcastically.” Brilliant idea
he
said “ now you are getting into it”.
Later
that evening she duly transferred £2000. into his account on her
smart phone.
At
the council meeting their were two long incredulous faces and younger
members who were quite open to the idea.
Sometime
later the keys were handed over and Penny, Ben, Dad and three friends
climbed down the whiffy gloomy steps. “Just look at the tiles and
the ironwork” they enthused. Out came the tape measures, then
another thought. What about knocking through to the old gents next
door?
Permission
was finally granted and they set to work in earnest. A Local Upstart
loan was granted from the only bank left in town, and work began with
not a little interest from the inhabitants. The local newsletter ran
an article which was picked up by some of the dailies and word spread
with very mixed reactions.
Eventually,
Open Day arrived with much fanfare. Ben was surprised at the size of
the crowd, it included the bank manager, the grumpy counsellors who
had felt obliged to come, family, friends and the curios. Penny, who
was there to cut the ribbon, looked beautiful he thought. He was
pleased that he named it “Penny”.
During
the following months there was always a queue outside, not for the
original purpose though! Most came out of curiosity and brought there
friends along. It became the “in” place. Penny had her investment
returned with interest.
One
evening, in the pub, Ben looked into her eyes and said “ You know
that old sad red phone box with the smashed windows...
Brian's
OBLIGED
TO
THE
LAST AND BEST JOB THAT I EVER HAD, WAS WORKING IN A LARGE HISTORICAL
HOUSE IN HAMPSHIRE.
I
HAD TO LEARN ALL THE HISTORY OF THE FAMILY,
THE HOUSE AND GROUNDS, GO
BACK TO THE 13th CENTURY. IT WAS BOUGHT FROM HENRY 8th
WHEN HE HAD THE MONASTERIES DESTROYED, 1538.
I
WAS GIVEN A FILE, 180 PAGES ON
MY
JOB. IT WAS IN TWO PARTS, FIRST, I WAS DRESSED AS THE BUTLER OF THE
FAMILY IN THE LATE VICTORIAN TIME. THIS MAN WAS A REAL PERSON, BY THE
NAME OF GEORGE PLEASANT, HE WAS WITH THE FAMILY FOR 54 YEARS. HE IS
BURIED IN THE LOCAL CHURCH YARD.
MY
SECOND PART OF THE JOB, TWICE A WEEK, WAS TO SHOW TOURIST AROUND THE
HOUSE, PLUS THE PRIVATE ROOMS, TELLING THEM THE HISTORY OF THE
FAMILY, HOUSE, AND GROUNDS.
WE
HAD PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, AND MANY FAMOUS PERSONS ALSO
STAYED, IN THE PRIVATE PARTS OF THE HOUSE.
WHEN
THE FAMILY WERE NOT AT HOME, PART OF MY JOB WAS TO SHOW PEOPLE AROUND
THE PRIVATE ROOMS.
THIS
TOUR WOULD TAKE ABOUT THREE QUARTERS OF A HOUR.
HAVING
TO DO TWO OR THREE, ONE AFTER THE OTHER, CANBE A LITTLE TIRING.
ONE
DAY I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF MY LUNCH BREAK, WHEN THE LADY OF THE HOUSE
CAME IN TO THE LUNCH ROOM AND ASKED ME TO GIVE HER A TOUR AND TELL
HER THE HISTORY OF THE PLACE. ALL 700YEARS!
NOW
THIS LADY HAD LIVED HERE FOR 18YEARS.
I
THOUGHT THAT SHE WAS CHECKING ME OUT TO SEE IF I WAS GIVING THE
TOURIST THE RIGHT INFORMATION.
I
FELT OBLIGED TO SHOW HER AROUND.
WHEN
WE LEFT THE LUNCH ROOM SHE TOLD ME IN A WHISPERED VOICE.
“
I AM GOING ON A CRUISE AND
HAVE TO GIVE A TALK ON MY HUSBAND, HISTORY AND THE HOUSE. AND I
NEED TO BRUSH UP ON IT ALL”.
IT
TOOK ME ONE HOUR AND HALF, TO TAKE HER THROUGH IT ALL.
ALL
THE WHILE SHE WAS MAKING NOTE, AND ASKING QUESTIONS. WELL AS LUCK
WOULD HAVE IT, I KNEW THE ANSWERS
AFTER
THE TOUR ,SHE THANKED ME, AND SAID SHE WOULD TELL THE HEAD GUIDE THAT
SHE WAS WELL INFORMED, ON THE HISTORICAL SIDE OF THE FAMILY.
FOUR
WEEKS LATER I SAW THE LADY, SHE SAID THE TRIP WAS A DELIGHT, AND THE
TALK WENT VERY WELL.
WHEW!
Obliged to. Once
again I'm obliged to dream up another story. It is getting harder to
do so, it's 2pm. Two hours past already and nothing comes to mind.
How long have we been doing this mental torture 6/7 years perhaps?
Over seventy stories completed? I shall have to look on the blog next
time I access the computer. When we started this game I was a lot
younger even had hair, well perhaps not but I certainly was a lot
better looking. All those stories I've written, stories of entities
feeding off our emotional energies, liberated women making progress
in a man's world. Browbeaten men, stories of all types. Does this
cerebral taxing make one smarter or at least help slow the gradual
decline of the grey cells? I think so for instance the other night I
dreamed up a joke which was well received by a small group of
people. No idea who they were and on awakening I could still
remember the punch line. It went like this The scene is in Australia
and a soft townie in the suburbs asks a sun burnished bushmen he met
in a pub where the outback began? The bushmen studies the man and
then says dismissively - get lost! I found that funny but there again
in the middle of the night everything seems funny. Did all this U3A
stimulus encourage the creative juices to flow if I can use that
expression
I must stop now to
go for my walk even though it is raining. Hope when I come back the
flow of creative thought will continue.
An hour later I'm
back wet and bedraggled, first thing I did was to put the kettle on
for a hot cup of tea. Then from the comfort of the armchair a look at
the unfinished crossword and the last clue a witty saying which with
the help of an electronic dictionary turned out to be an epigram. New
one to me but now I've woven it into my story it may stay in my
declining memory bank. Back to the computer room - now what were we
talking about? Obliged to – should we be obliged to do anything. An
obligation is where we are pressurised by society or our conscience
to do something we really do not want to do. Should we really be
obliged to? If we do we won't be our authentic selves something that
is now popular with the new age believers but this is a question for
the philosophy group so I'll leave that to another time. All I need
now is a very amusing epigram to finish off this ramble. Time
passes.
Three weeks later in
preparation for tomorrow's meeting I read this story again and I had
completely forgotten the joke and the epigram word so I have to
report all this work doesn't help the old brain much.
